Before I get into the main point of this post, I'll just point out that I fully realize the hypocrisy shown by this post and my reply regarding Brag's rants, and I deserve any flak that I get because of that.

But on to my main concern, which is the deterioration of the increasingly popular site CUUSOO. In case you haven't heard of it, here's the link: http://lego.cuusoo.com/There's a video on the right side of the screen describing what it is, so I'll leave the explanation to the people who made it, just so I don't screw up the spirit of the site in my explanation.

That being said, I think it's clear that the purpose of this site is to pitch ideas for sets that you'd like to see officially released by LEGO. If your idea gets to 10 000 supporters, it goes into a review period, during which the idea will be critically examined by people at TLG, and they'll decide if it's worth making the idea a reality. So far, three projects have been made into official sets. Two of them were from the Japanese site, which was the one that started it all. They are the Shinkai 6500 submarine, the Hayabusa satellite, and a Minecraft micro-world set.

"But what's the issue? Why do you say it's dying?"

I say this because due to the somewhat recent explosion in the site's popularity, it's started to lose (what I think is) its purpose. Two trends are taking over the site. The first is to post up an "idea" that comprises of you saying "hey TLG, I want a LEGO set from (insert movie/video game/TV show). Where's my evidence? Out of the seven projects that have reached 10 000 supporters from the North American site, how many of them aren't just "make sets based on ____"? One. Just one. The only one that is an original IP (or not sure if that's the right term) is the Modular Western Town (in case you're wondering, the other six were Minecraft, Shaun of the Dead, EVE Online, Back to the Future, Legend of Zelda, and most recently, Portal 2). With the exception of the Portal 2 entry (the team behind it has mocked up a minifig-scale GLaDOS set and testing chamber, as well as a LEGO Games idea which I personally think is the most reasonable), and - though I'm reluctant to say this - the Zelda entry, all of these have nothing but a single MOC to back the idea. Sure, TLG does all the final tinkering and planning, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't put any thought into how to make the idea an actual product.

The second trend I've noticed is that people have turned CUUSOO into a photo sharing site, where they post a picture with a description, get people to "support" it, and have people comment saying "wow awesome!" or "nice". Sound familiar? It should if you've ever used Flickr, MOCPages, or even a forum like this one. There are a lot of ideas posted up that are just a single MOC. I've seen many comments on Flickr telling people "you should put this on CUUSOO," even if the "project" that gets put up there has no extra thought put into it. To be fair, the fact that you get a 1% (I think) cut of the profit might play a big factor in this, since it would be stupid to throw away a chance at making some money, no matter how much of a long shot it is. I can't argue with that, but I just feel that it's lost so much of what it was supposed to be. People are just throwing MOCs on the site because they like them, and people are supporting the projects because they like the MOC or the IP rather than the product that would come from it.

Last edited by aoffan23 on Sun Jul 29, 2012 1:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

I don't see a problem with a single MOC backing up an idea- it's highly unlikely that TLG will make a play theme, and a single set seems more reasonable. Now, if those people who did post one set expect a whole theme, that's a different story...

[rant]I personally think lego cuusoo is dying for a different reason: TLG is barring practically all IPs that aren't at a my little ponies-level of appropriateness. I understand why they would want to do that, IP protection and all, but still, it's killing the spirit behind cuusoo. I mean, I didn't care much for the Serenity project, but they rejected it on the grounds that the theme was "inappropriate" and "not for the target audience." The heck? I don't know much about the show, but it doesn't seem to give off the impression of a pr0nographic gorn fest, and in fact according to that commonsense media website it is within the TLG target range (which I assume is 7-12). Even if it was somehow in actuality a pr0nographic gorn fest and I just didn't know it was, TLG is willing to make Avengers sets, a movie that features somebody's eye getting gouged out? I don't even at their hypocrisy.

TLG should either stop making cuusoo sound like the place where dreams come true, or change its policies to be more lenient and consumer-centered. I mean seriously.[/rant]

I think the reason they did that was because "not enough of a consumer base" wouldn't be taken well as a reason. If they said that not enough people would buy it, then there would be people speaking up about how much they love it, and that they would totally buy it. It just seems to me that less people would argue about how appropriate it is based on the company's standard.

I think they just decided that they probably weren't going to make a profit, which is probably true. They're still a business and as much as they might like to do something if it's at a loss then it's not worth it.

The fact of the matter is, not a single item from CUUSOO has hit store shelves yet, and until that happens, people will have a hard time realizing that this is, in fact, a thing.

Yes, it would be totally, totally awesome to have LEGO everythings, even for super-obscure stuff- I would probably jizz my pants at the thought of something like The Rabbit from Ergo Proxy becoming a model that I can own and play with, but from the point of view of LEGO's boardroom of Danish Overlords?

It'd be a huge risk- first of all they'd have to secure the rights from whoever it is owns the right to make Ergo Proxy toys, associate themselves with that series (which has both sex and violence, oh noes), spend money on the plastic (of course), spend money one new molds (if they are needed), pay the salary of the set designers, produce a easily follow-able set of instructions, make everything look pretty, print those, pack the legos in a box, print the box with some pretty artwork that someone has to design, and than market it at people ( this step would be easy, it'd catch on with every demographic- it's a fucking awesome space-pirate ship that flies around on land that'd have 2 minifigs, a child/hobbit figure, and a robot).

I don't know why lego doesn't make more "adult" sets. come on, which 7-10 year old kid would buy an architecture set over castle or starwars? I would love to see Futurama. I'm building a planet express building now.

me, literally two posts ago wrote:It'd be a huge risk- first of all they'd have to secure the rights from whoever it is owns the right to make Ergo Proxy toys, associate themselves with that series (which has both sex and violence, oh noes), spend money on the plastic (of course), spend money one new molds (if they are needed), pay the salary of the set designers, produce a easily follow-able set of instructions, make everything look pretty, print those, pack the legos in a box, print the box with some pretty artwork that someone has to design, and than market it at people ( this step would be easy, it'd catch on with every demographic- it's a fucking awesome space-pirate ship that flies around on land that'd have 2 minifigs, a child/hobbit figure, and a robot).

me, literally two posts ago wrote:It'd be a huge risk- first of all they'd have to secure the rights from whoever it is owns the right to make Ergo Proxy toys, associate themselves with that series (which has both sex and violence, oh noes), spend money on the plastic (of course), spend money one new molds (if they are needed), pay the salary of the set designers, produce a easily follow-able set of instructions, make everything look pretty, print those, pack the legos in a box, print the box with some pretty artwork that someone has to design, and than market it at people ( this step would be easy, it'd catch on with every demographic- it's a fucking awesome space-pirate ship that flies around on land that'd have 2 minifigs, a child/hobbit figure, and a robot).